Exercising apparatus



(No Model.)

A. H. HOWARD,

EXEBUI$ING APPARATU3.

No. 376,741. Patented Jan. 24, 1888.

Inventor WWW.

e65 fibwar 2 K '4' Ilium UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

ALFRED HENRY HOWARD, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS;

'7 EXERCISIYNG APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part ofLetters Patent No. 37 6,741, dated January 24, 1888. I

Application filed January 13,1886. Serial No. 188,433. (No model.)

To all whom it Hwy. concern;

Be it known that I, ALFRE HENRY How; ARD, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, of the Common wealth of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Exercising Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 is a front. elevation, andFig. 2a side view, of mechanism or apparatus containing my invention, the nature of which is defined in the claims hereinafter presented. Fig. 3 is a vertical section, on an enlarged scale, of the swivel and its supporting-bracket. Fig. 4 is a top view of the weight-carrier.

The improvement relates to that class of gymnic exercising-machines in which, when in use, a weight-carrier or one or more weights are drawn upward by a person by means of a rope connected therewith and led around'one. or more supporting-sheaves or grooved wheels, the exertion made by a person in so doing serving to exercise his muscular system or physical powers.

In the said drawings, A denotes a weightcarrier, consisting of a base, a, and a furcated column, b, erected thereon, such base and column being provided with projections c c and d d, extending from them, as shown, and

notched or grooved vertically to span and slide on two stationary vertical and parallel rods, B, extending downwardefrom'a bracket, 0, which, when the mechanism is in use, is to be fastened to a suitable support-as the side ofa room, for instance-the rods at their lower ends being secured to the floor'of such room, or to a bar fixed thereto. The bracket 0 sup ports aswivel, D, within which is a sheave or grooved wheel, E, that is arranged between the arms of the swivel and sustained so as to be capable of freely revolving. The upper part of the swivel extends between a stationary arm, 6, projecting from the bracket, and an angular lever, F, i'ulcrumed to the bracket and arranged directly over the said arm.

A screw, f, screws into and through the shorter or upper arm of the lever F and against the bracket, such screw being inclined, as represented, to the arm, in order that the bearing end of the screw may rest at its periphery, in

stead of its center, against the bracket, whereby the screw is less liable tobe'accidentally revolved than'would be the oasewere it pointed orconical at its lower end and the point bore at its apex against the bracket.

Both the arm 6 and the longer arm of thele ver F are socketed, as shown at g and h, to re;

theswivel on a screw provided with a checkfriction and lateral movements of the swivel.

the bracket is a rope, I, at one end thereof. This rope isled downward-to and partly around a sheave or grooved wheel, m, arranged within the fork of the column'b of the weight-carrier ble.

having fixed to its free end a stirrup or handle, n. Aperson on taking hold of the said handle and thereby pulling the rope may cause the weight-carrier who raised between its guides. In practicesuch weight-carrierisprovided with a series of weights, each of which is notched, to enable it, when in place, to renut is avoidedr-as used in some other exercising-machines of the above-mentioned classsuch screw being liable to work loose under the.

Fastened 'to an eye, Z,-in the lower part of and adapted thereto, so as to be freely revolu-' From" the said grooved wheel m the rope is led upward to and around the upper half-of a the grooved wheel E of the swivel, such rope 1 V ceive and span the weight-carrier column, the

lowest of such weights resting directly upon the base of the carrier.

lam aware that prior to. my invention an exercising apparatus of the class hereinbefore mentioned has had its weight-carrier provided with guide-rods and guides to steady it or' prevent it from oscillating in its vertical motions, and therefore I do not. claim, broadly, an apparatus so constructed, one of such kind being shown in the United States Patent No.

323,7 92 nor do I claim a bracket and itsswivel constructed and applied as represented in the United States Patents Nos. 254,108 and 310,386, for in neither'of these is the bracket providedwith a'bent lever and with a screw screwed and going obliquely through the upper arm of the lever and bearing against the back plate of the bracket, as is the case in the bracket of the exercisi ng-in achine herei nbefore described.

I claim- -1. The combination of the bracket 0, provided with the stationary arm 6, the angular lever F, and the screw f thereof screwed through and inclined to the upper arm of said lever and the part of the bracket against which the said screw bears,with the swivel D, pivoted to such arm 6 and lever F, the guide-rods B B, extending down from the brackets, the weightcarrier A, arranged to slide on such rods, and the rope I, fastened to and depending from the bracket and extending about the grooved wheels of such swivel and weight-carrier, and provided with a handle, as set forth.

2. The combination of the rope I, fastened at one end, as described, and extending downward in the form of aloop, and thence over a sheave or wheel to a handle, as set forth, with the weight-carrier A, provided with a grooved wheel, m, hung in said loop, and with the guiding projections c c d d, and with vertical rods or guides B B to enter such projections, all being substantially as shown and hereinbefore explained.

ALFRED HENRY HOWARD.

Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY,

R. B. ToRREY. 

